In general, a typical digital communications receiver is designed for use in connection with a particular type of input waveform. When the waveform is received, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) input signal is maintained at a power level in order to maximize ADC's dynamic range. This ultimately works to minimize quantization noise and clipping induced noise for enhanced receiver performance over a range of input signal levels. In other words, the power level into the ADC is constrained to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the particular digitized waveform. In that the receiver is designed for one type of input waveform, these types of power level control methods minimize the error in ADC input power relative to some reference power level, which is selected based on apriori knowledge of the input waveform characteristics.
One example of this type arrangement is where the power of a matched filter output is compared to a reference power determined by the signal of interest, the ADC dynamic range, RF front end parameters, etc. The front end gain is adjusted to minimize the difference between the power of the matched filter output and the reference power. This type of matched filter design is based on the known signal waveform such as a pseudo-random noise (PN) sequence, packet preamble, pilot tone, or the like. Often, the reference power is selected according to the peak-to-average characteristic of the waveform to be detected. Accordingly, the reference power for an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal will differ from that of a single tone (sine wave) or a direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) waveform. Note that for most useful waveforms (excepting a single tone) a certain amount of clipping is typically permissible in order to maximize SNR, where the percentage of clipping is dependent on the input waveform.
Gain control stages as used in the prior art are not adequate for spectrum sensing in cognitive radio applications. In cognitive radio, the signal or waveform input to the ADC is, in general, random and unknown. Also, there may be several superimposed waveforms present on the scanned channel which are then input to the ADC. In this case, the a priori waveform characteristics required to determine an optimal reference power for level control are absent.
Hence, there is a need to provide a means to achieve a desired level of clipping which is acceptable for spectrum sensing in the absence of apriori knowledge of waveform characteristics.
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